Who are you?

Week by week since the start of the year our blog here at the Australian Libertarian Society has had a steady increase in the number of visitors.

Obviously some people comment a lot at this blog but no doubt some people just come to read the articles and see what others have to say. I thought it would be fun to see what our audience profile looks like. So I’ve prepared a simple short poll that lets you tell us a little about yourself. Feel free to be more expansive in the comments section if you wish. In particular it would be nice to get a quick hello from any regular readers that usually don’t comment.

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30 thoughts on “Who are you?”

I’m a 22 year old male libertarian studying in Adelaide. I read Thoughts on Freedom every day. Along with Double-Think it’s one of only a few decent Australian libertarian blogs I have found. I don’t comment often due to lack of time and rarely having anything insightful to say. But I’ll try and chime in more often because I really appreciate the commentary you guys provide.

I’m a 31 year old male from Melbourne. In the past I haven’t been particularly politically active because none of the main parties encompassed my views on freedom. It’s only been over the last few years I’ve discovered the Libertarian movement and am proud to say it’s the first time I’ve ever thought there was a political party with opinions that correlate to my own.

While I am sympathetic to libertarian ideas in practice, I don’t consider myself a libertarian as such since I don’t believe that you can derive political solutions through subscription to a political ideology.
My favorite bloggers here are TP and JH and maybe RC if he posted regularly.

Good for you, Riley! How does one arrive at libertarianism so young, though? most of us had to go thru the torturous process of embracing socialism as students and then realising the awful truth. you must be smarter. 🙂

DavidL – I didn’t want to embarass you by having an over 80 – 90s category. I thought you’d look less lonely in a larger group so I called it “60 or more”. 😉

Seriously though people should feel free to offer their age or any other interesting particulars in the comments. Don’t feel like you need to engage in any form of discussion if you don’t wish to, you can just say hi and retreat back into obscurity if you prefer.

Hi, 28yo male libertarian software engineer from Sydney. Only just started reading this blog and I voted LDP for the senate in the last federal election (no lower house options.) I think I came in on the Ron Paul bandwagon – actually I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s part of the reason you’ve had a bump in visitors recently. I’ve always been a civil libertarian but leant left until I started listening to Paul and reading some of the typical classic liberal texts. The economic side in particular was something that I was simply ignorant of before and I’d imagine there’d be a lot of people in the same boat that could be brought across to the libertarian way of thinking. Anyway, look forward to continuing to read this site and will contribute where I can!

Ive been reading the blog for a year or so now, I pop up and say something occasionally.
I love what David has to say, as it normally echo’s my thoughts but in greater detail and articulation. I think he needs his own website.

Hi, I’m a 23-year old software engineer from Melbourne. I’ve only discovered Libertarianism in the past few months, but I was amazed I hadn’t found it earlier. The concept of more freedom to control your activities, while balancing the extra responsibility for your own actions, just completely aligned with my own personal philosophy.

This blog has given me a good sense of how Libertarian ideals can be applied to current issues and I like what I’m hearing. I find myself nodding in agreement while reading a lot of posts. Plus, since I’ve been introduced to Stuff White People Like and Jack Marx through here, I won’t be leaving anytime soon. Cheers to all the posters!

That’s a very impressive upscale in readers, Terje. In fact this I have to say this site is turning into one of the best in Ozblogistan – thoughtful, literate and engaging. In light of the comment about female libertarians, I now feel duty bound to post more often!

My name is Clinton, I’m a part-time alcoholic (help me Rudd!) and moderate libertarian (piss off Rudd).
Came to be inspired by Rand, Locke, Hayek and so forth. At times fascist social-darwinist ideals such as cutting out the tongues of stupid people who talk too much (eg: Dr Phil, Oprah, Wil Anderson), punching people that stand in doorways and letting the weak die off appeal to me… but at the end of the day I see these childish whims conflicting with liberty which I see as a much more valuable asset to a well functioning society.
Done some music and electronics at TAFE, the later was so poorly organized the class size started at 25 students but reduced to 5 by the end of year. I also saw how the student union functions as a popularity contest crossed with the desire to get your hands a HUGE amount of cash to do with as you please. Considering do some formal education in economics next year.
Thanks to Thoughts on Freedom I came across the LDP which I regard as the best means of balancing Australia from a social democracy to a liberal democracy.
Thanks to “Libertarian” being an option on ya Facebook profile and current freedom of the interwebs, we should be able to hold off the slide into chronic statism.

I’m 22, studying commerce and law in Canberra. Growing up in a lower-income safe Labor seat in Sydney, I was at one point quite sympathetic to leftist ideals, particularly the stock standard ‘more spending on education and healthcare’ line.

I become more convinced by the free market argument after doing introductory economics at uni. But I really became interested in the idea of non-intervention after doing a course on legal theory and studying Mill.

I’m not a flag waving freedom fighting libertarian though. I voted for the LDP, I read Cato and Reason but that’s where it pretty much ends. Even when politics gets brought up in casual conversation and someone whinges about the government not stepping in, I’ll usually just agree with them for convenience.

‘Even when politics gets brought up in casual conversation and someone whinges about the government not stepping in, I’ll usually just agree with them for convenience.’

I always point out how dysfunctional, wasteful and abusive government is, and you know what, I almost always get general agreement – because let’s face it, it’s obvious.

A lot of the support for government, or any value, depends not on reason and evidence, but on human orthodoxy. People look which way the wind is blowing before they decide to expose themselves to the possible disapproval of their fellow human beings. Over the last century the accepted thing has been to idolise the state, so that’s what people do, almost without thinking. The main way the principles of liberty will spread will be the core like us, who name and shame the bullying and waste of government for what it is. People will follow you just to fit in, Winston.

I’m a 47 year-old libertarian. Until 7 years ago I had never even heard the word. I used to call myself a ‘Lockean’ LOL. Until 2 years ago I had never met a libertarian. But now the internet is bringing us all together, and I find that anti-establishmentarian skepticism of government is very widespread – far more than support for any major party, if only we know how to cultivate it.

We don’t need to persuade everyone. Just 10 or 20 percent of people to vote for the LDP would be all we need to get through great reforms in favour of liberty.

My dream is for the day the LDP secures the passage of the ‘Cleaning Out the Broomcupboard of State’ Act. This goes through the statute and case law books and abolishes any and every law that bears against the liberty of anyone and everyone to do what they want, on condition only that they are not aggressing against anyone.

90 percent of our laws are abolished, and good riddance; a new understanding of non-violence, liberty and property as the basis of co-operations spreads among the peoples; and we all live happily ever after tra-laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

“Good for you, Riley! How does one arrive at libertarianism so young, though? most of us had to go thru the torturous process of embracing socialism as students and then realising the awful truth. you must be smarter. :)”

I used to call myself a ‘liberal capitalist’ because I believe in liberty for people and government non-intervention in the economy. I never really identified as a libertarian until recently. The Rudd internet censorship tipped the boat.

hey, Justin, have you thought that maybe a libertarian, or the L&D party, could look into that very issue, and come up with a book that gives us minimal laws? Why wait until you get into government? People might just think this was another empty promise, but if you’ve done it already, they’ll look at you with new respect.

I am a 24 year old American Libertarian from Southern California. I run the Libertarian Group on myspace and as part of the efforts to internationalize the group I have been seeking out libertarian organizations around the world. There have been many common views in my forum over the years that Liberty is strictly an American game and I have made an effort to end this mindset. Upon asking my international members to start subgroups I got a few responses but no Australian group (I now link to the LDP group). Having friends in Australia I began to seek out Australian Libertarian Groups. A few years ago I found the Australian Libertarian Party but was unable to find contacts or any sort of discussion going on. A while ago I found this group and started reading from time to time and have learned quite a bit about Australia and America as well. Watching a near absence of the cult of the soldier, daily pledge of allegiances to the government for school children, a loser pays legal system, an anemic religious right and cops who don’t act like organized criminals I started to see just how large scale these problems are here in America. A common question that has come up in my group is America the ideal country for a future of liberty and if not where in the world should we look. And that is a very tough question to answer but seeking other groups and learning more about other countries has helped considerably.

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